With dazzling stagecraft and an extraordinary solo performance by Eryn Jean Norvill, this screenshot of Dorian is a Wilde ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first duty of life is to assume a pose,\u201d Oscar Wilde declared, \u201cwhat the second duty is no one yet has found out.\u201d As his biographer Richard Ellmann noted \u2013 \u201cWilde had been much concerned with images . He had painted self-portrait after self portrait.\u201d He was referring to Oscar\u2019s variety of beards, his curled hair and foppish costumes \u2013 all of Wilde\u2019s visual ripostes to the punitive drabness and prudery of Victorian England.<\/p>\n
Then, as now, to be outlandish is a statement, an assertion – even a declaration of war to one\u2019s enemies and Oscar Wilde\u2019s novella The Picture of Dorian Gray,<\/em> published in 1890, proposed such a challenge. It was also a critique of the aestheticist ideas that he enthusiastically upheld, and a queer message through the flames that would haunt him later at his trial.<\/p>\n In Wilde\u2019s story \u2013 moral fable, satire, and Gothic horror yarn, all in one – Dorian Gray, the beautiful young man, painted by Basil Hallward and lured into a life of hedonistic excess by Lord Henry Wotton \u2013 makes a pact to exchange his soul for perpetual youth and beauty. In a reversal of the usual state of things \u2013 his portrait will age and perish but he will never. It doesn\u2019t end well, but Wilde, as moralist, wants to have a few words each way. Summing up his novella he said \u2013 \u201cAll excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n In Kip Williams\u2019 thrillingly imaginative and visually gorgeous adaptation for Sydney Theatre Company, Wilde\u2019s spellbinding narrative is both conscientiously maintained and given a currency and shrewd commentary which transforms and renews the original.<\/p>\n When Wilde was working on the story he admitted in a letter that he was having trouble. \u201cI am afraid it is rather like my own life – all conversation and no action. I can\u2019t describe action : my people sit in chairs and chatter.\u201d<\/p>\n In this production (one of four monologues in this year\u2019s festival performed by women) the brilliant Eryn Jean Norvill presents, with a marvellous range of video and live feed inclusions, 26 characters – many of whom sit in chairs and chatter with each other in real time.<\/p>\n From her first appearance on the huge vertical screen, Norvill captures us. Surrounded by a black-shrouded army of videographers, dressers and others (I counted 13 at the final curtain) she changes costume, position, screen size, and character for two captivating hours. Williams has created an extraordinary display of stage logistics but it is all, and only, to serve the live performer.<\/p>\n Norvill commands the stage as the narrator, as the photogenic Dorian Gray, the painter Hallward with sideburns and the moustachioed Lord Harry. Her delivery is splendid, Williams\u2019 text wisely highlights the cadences and pleasures of Wilde\u2019s elegantly easy prose. Rarely do characterisations step into stereotype except for comedy \u2013 in the puppet show of Sybil Vane\u2019s rendering of Juliet, for instance, and in the astonishing illusion of a dinner party scene where Norvill, as Lord Harry, sits beside a long table with four different video images of herself satirising every variety of upper class twittery.<\/p>\n There is much to admire about this production which, having lost time to the Covid closures, is surely still destined for further international festival performances. Designer Marg Horwell has created a sumptuous floral d\u00e9cor around Dorian, enhanced in the vibrant technicolour of David Bergman\u2019s video, delectably lit by Nick Schlieper, and enveloped by composer and sound artist, Clemence Williams\u2019 evocative, at times quirky, score.<\/p>\n As Dorian Gray descends further into the lower depths, it is not art for art\u2019s sake, but glamour for celebrity\u2019s sake. His puckish blonde locks become a pompadour of impudence, Horwell\u2019s costumes shift from page boy whites to lurid Liberace-stylings, or maybe Hip-Hop imperial, with gaudy sequinned cloaks to match his dagger.<\/p>\n When he admires his lavish excess on his iPhone as if in a mirror, Photoshop helps us visualise the distortions of the portrait hidden behind the curtain in his apartment. It is a witty premise. While Wilde\u2019s character exchanges his soul to preserve himself as a work of art, Williams\u2019 reading is more damningly banal. His Dorian is seeking immortality on Tik Tok and Instagram.<\/p>\n The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> is a depiction for our times while reminding us of the brilliance of its author. Kip Williams and Eryn Jean Norvill have created memorable art by holding up a video mirror to show just how far our vulgar narcissism has trashed it.<\/p>\n The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> is playing at Her Majesty\u2019s until Saturday March 19.<\/p>\n https:\/\/indaily.com.au\/inreview\/adelaide-festival\/2022\/03\/15\/adelaide-festival-review-the-picture-of-dorian-gray\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With dazzling stagecraft and an extraordinary solo performance by Eryn Jean Norvill, this screenshot of Dorian is a Wilde ride. \u201cThe first duty of life is to assume a pose,\u201d Oscar Wilde declared, \u201cwhat the second duty is no one yet has found out.\u201d As his biographer Richard Ellmann noted \u2013 \u201cWilde had been much concerned with images . He had painted self-portrait after self portrait.\u201d He was referring to Oscar\u2019s variety of beards, his curled hair and foppish costumes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5,11,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-43","category-archive","category-festival","category-state-theatre-company","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3409"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3412,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions\/3412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}